Danny Webber column: Keep this squad and Accrington Stanley will do well

1:40pm Wednesday 2nd April 2014

By Danny Webber

WE’VE managed to pull nicely away from the relegation battle with that win at Exeter City on Saturday.

No-one else is stringing results together down at the bottom.

It has brought the play-offs in sight, and while that is a very big ask as long as we are aiming for that direction that’s the main thing.

You can look at the start of the season and say ‘What if?’, but the start is part of our season and the only way you can look at it is a positive in that we managed to come through it.

People thought after 10 games we were dead and buried.

We had two points and no-one outside of the camp saw us coming back from that.

For us to have nearly 50 points now, with six games to go, it’s something good to take out of it.

This season probably wasn’t meant to be the one for us, but if we can roll into next season and keep the nucleus of the squad together then who knows?

That’s probably easier said than done. Accrington Stanley don’t generally keep their squad over the summer with players often signing one-year contracts. People see it as a club they can come and take players from.

When I arrived in pre-season there were probably only four or five who had officially signed up for this season, the rest were trialists.

I’m sure Tom Aldred is a player who will have attracted a lot of attention for having such a strong season. He has been an ever present and he has started chipping in with goals now as well.

Him and Dean Winnard have a good partnership, meaning Rob Atkinson has been unlucky.

He is a good player but Tom and Dean have been so solid together it’s been hard for him to play.

In some games Tom has been colossal. In this league you have to be brave, getting your head and body in the way – he has done that and deserves his player of the month nomination.

He has had a few moves in his career. After Watford he went to Colchester but it didn’t quite work out.

He was perhaps a bit young and naive then but now he has got his head down and gone back to basics, and Accrington are reaping the benefits of that.

But we can’t relax and we will be up for it against Northampton on Saturday.